Concert Review: Dethklok 06/03 Seattle

I was pretty skeptical about this show. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Metalocalypse and Dethklok's music but I just had no idea what the crowd was going to be like or how the show would be. I have no idea who the typical Dethklok fan is, but according to all the negativity on message boards, I can tell most of them aren't your typical metal heads. Metalocalypse is a show on Cartoon Network, so I have no idea who watches it. Teens? Definitely. Preteens? Possible. People who "get" metal? Probably not.

It was pretty funny when I actually saw the crowd after I walked in following Chimaira's set-I've seen them two times and did not want there to be a third-and finally realizing who the typical fan is. It's a 30-year old fat slob with overactive sweat glands who looks like he spends all day in front of the TV all day. Honestly. Fat nerds everywhere. This made for the worst smelling show I've ever been to.

But enough about the crowd. I've seen random Youtube clips of Dethklok playing live and figured it would mostly consist the band playing the songs followed by cartoon clips on the projector. This is pretty much exactly what happened. They opened with the Detheme and the rest of the concert followed this song, clip, song formula. Brendan only talked to the crowd once, and this was in all three of his Dethklok voices for about 25 seconds. Even though I was expecting this it made it the least intimate show I had ever attended. Fortunately, the band played ALL of their good songs, which is all but about four songs from their album. The Premier/Fenix/Showbox SoDo has always had less-than-average sound because it is essentially an old warehouse. There was a lot of bass and I couldn't hear Skwisgaar's incredible solos too well.

Overall it was a decent show, but it was pretty obvious that that band had only played a few shows together before this. I hardly ever pick up mistakes when seeing bands I see but this night I picked up three, all surprising from drummer Gene Hoglan. Weird. Oh well, still pretty damn good for a fake metal band. Glad I got to see them.

Energy 3/5

Sound 3/5

Crowd Interaction 2/5

Song Selection 5/5

Concert Review: Tyranny & Bloodshed Tour

Firewind: Awesome.

Dark Tranquillity: One of my favorite bands.

Arch Enemy: A band I've always wanted to see live.

Tyranny & Bloodshed Tour: Heavy metal at its finest.

Firewind

When I first started listening to heavy metal about 4 years ago, I desperately tried to figure out what genres I liked, so I illegally downloaded songs from just about every metal band that I had heard of. Tracks off of Burning Earth was my first introduction to power metal and I loved them. But, time went on, I lost all my music files and I never got around to picking up any of their albums. Fast forward to 2008. I got my hands on a copy of The Premonition and absolutely love it.

I normally like my power metal to be more symphonic and epic, but I still love listening to Firewind and was genuinely excited to see them play live. Gus G is a reported 'guitar god' and his playing was flawless at the show. The rest of the band wasn't too energetic; the lead singer mostly stood in place most of the time and the drummer looked like he was 45 years old...nevermind just looked it up. He's 43. And he used to be the drummer for Helloween. Ok, he's cool. The band mostly played songs off of The Premonition and sounded pretty good. Unfortunately they had to open. Greek Metal FTW!

Energy 3/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 3/5

Song Selection 4/5

Divine Heresy

Deathcore. Meh.

Dark Tranquillity

As I mentioned earlier, they are one of my favorite bands (I know I say that a lot but I consider about 20 bands to be my 'favorite') I saw them about 3 years ago at the same venue and loved their show.

Mikael Stanne is one of the most unique metal frontmen. He sings death metal yet has a smile on his face the whole time and is continually telling the crowd how much he loves them. They played a fantastic set which strangely didn't feature any tracks from Character but was brilliant nonetheless. Mikael was on the monitors half the time and did multiple stage dives; I love it when singers try to have fun with the crowd. There was too much bass and not enough drums and guitar, but that's my sole complaint about their set.

Energy 5/5

Sound 3/5

Crowd Interaction 5/5

Song Selection 4/5

Arch Enemy

One of the few metal bands that I love but have never seen live. I've heard they put on a fantastic show and was really excited to see them. They did not disappoint. They entered the stage as silhouettes with blood-red backlighting. Very metal. It was pretty ominous and at first but got a little frustrating after the blinding strobe lights came on and stayed on the whole time. I would have liked to be able to see a bit more of their features but shows are about the music first and foremost, right? They were loud without being painful and started the set by going seamlessly from "Blood on your Hands" into "Ravenous." Unfortunate Angela Gossow is about 5'1" and I didn't even get to see her until they were about 10 minutes into their set. She didn't move around and get into it as much as she could have, but she made up for it with her perfect voice and constant emotion.

It's always frustrating seeing a female-fronted band because the audience is continually screaming some less-than-savory remarks that get old fast. Instead of ignoring them or being confronting, Angela took it in stride. After their first five songs she said, "It's getting pretty hot in here, am I right?" Of course, half the crowd responded with a resounding TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT! And surprisingly, she obliged, revealing a skimpy camisole underneath. After hearing our cheers and jeers she told us "If you're good, maybe I'll take this one off too..." Wow. Never thought I would here that from a lead singer. The show continued as amazingly as before with the obligatory Anarchistic/Anti-Bush statements from Angela that drove the crowd into a frenzy during "The Last Enemy." They ended their set with an encore of "We Will Rise" and everyone left the building with a smile on their first. A damn-near perfect headlining set.

Energy 4/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 5/5

Song Selection 5/5